Frank Bren

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Australian actor, playwright, and scholar of film history

title: "Frank Bren" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1943-births", "2018-deaths", "australian-male-film-actors", "australian-male-soap-opera-actors", "australian-male-dramatists-and-playwrights", "20th-century-australian-dramatists-and-playwrights", "21st-century-australian-dramatists-and-playwrights", "cinema-of-hong-kong"] description: "Australian actor, playwright, and scholar of film history" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Bren" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Australian actor, playwright, and scholar of film history ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

FieldValue
nameFrank Bren
captionFrank Bren, in the film Betel Nut Girl (2013)
birth_nameFrank Bren
birth_date
death_date
occupation
years_activeas actor - 1967-2013
::

| name = Frank Bren | image = | caption = Frank Bren, in the film Betel Nut Girl (2013) | birth_name = Frank Bren | birth_date = | death_date = | occupation = | years_active = as actor - 1967-2013 Frank Bren (7 September 1943 – 14 April 2018) was an Australian actor, playwright/dramatist, director, translator and author, who was a scholar of international film history. He has written books (on the histories of Polish and Hong Kong cinema), written plays, and acted in Australian film and television roles.

Books and articles

Frank Bren was a scholar of Polish cinema and Chinese cinema film history. His book World Cinema 1: Poland (University of Illinois Press, 1989) is one of the premier resources on the history of Polish cinema.

His book (with Law Kar), Hong Kong Cinema: A Cross-Cultural View (The Scarecrow Press, 2004) is one of the few books to thoroughly document the very early history of Hong Kong cinema, dating back to its beginnings in the 19th century.

Bren was writing a biography of French filmmaker and comedian, Pierre Étaix.

Bren has also written articles on film for international journals such as Far Eastern Economic Review, Screen International, Films and Filming, as well as for newspapers such as Libération and The Asian Wall Street Journal.

Acting career

Film, television and stage

Frank Bren played Colin "The Snake" Adder in Mark Savage's film Sensitive New Age Killer, and co-starred in the Craig Addison movie Betel Nut Girl. He also played two recurring roles, as twin brothers Colin Taylor and Alf Taylor, in the popular Australian TV series Neighbours during the 1990s. In addition, he played "Mr. Nicholson" in the film Hating Alison Ashley. He was preparing a biopic of Chinese-American film director Esther Eng.

In all, Bren has acted in over a dozen roles in Australian television series and movies, including The Flying Doctors, Blue Heelers and Stingers.

Frank Bren wrote and starred in the play A History of Motion Pictures, which ran at La Mama Theatre (Melbourne). He has also written and starred in about a dozen plays since 1967, with runs in London, Amsterdam, and Melbourne. Some of the other plays he both wrote and starred in are The Rise and Fall of Archie Jones (1968), Have You Noticed Your Leg Is Missing? (1969), Odyssey of a Bald Man (1970), Larceny Makes No Noise (1988), Muckrake (1989), Honest! (1993), and Flashback (1997).

Death

Frank Bren died from cancer, aged 74, on 14 April 2018, at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre in Melbourne, Victoria. A tribute to his life was held at La Mama Theatre, and further tributes were written by writer John Snadden and film director Mark Savage.

Filmography (selected)

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Betel Nut Girl2013Jack
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Notes

References

  1. [[Marek Haltof]], ''Polish National Cinema'', Berghahn Books, 2002 (Introduction).
  2. Janina Falkowska, ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 62, No. 3, p. 592 (2003).
  3. Review by ''The Bookwatch'', Nov. 2004, published by The Midwest Book Review [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0QLD/is_2004_Nov/ai_n8698705] {{Webarchive. link. (13 February 2007)
  4. link. (12 October 2004)
  5. "The Esther Eng Story (website)".
  6. "DonaldofChina.com".
  7. {{IMDb name. 0107129. Frank Bren
  8. "Dragon Horse Films".
  9. "The Esther Eng Story (website)".
  10. "Frank Bren". AusStage.
  11. [http://www.australianstage.com.au/reviews/melbourne/a-history-of-motion-pictures--la-mama-338.html Review] {{Webarchive. link. (16 September 2007 of "A History of Motion Pictures" from ''Australian Stage'', 4 May 2007.)
  12. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/72811 ''A History of Motion Pictures''] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  13. "Interview with Frank Bren".
  14. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/102802 ''The Rise and Fall of Archie Jones''] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  15. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/102813 "Have You Noticed Your Leg Is Missing?"] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  16. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/102833 ''Odyssey of a Bald Man''] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  17. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/1480 ''Larceny Makes No Noise''] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  18. link. (29 November 2021 via [[Google News Archive]], retrieved on 6 February 2014).)
  19. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/1752 ''Muckrake''] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  20. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/20211 ''Honest!''] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  21. [http://www.ausstage.edu.au/pages/event/29427 ''Flashback''] {{Webarchive. link. (22 February 2014 , [[AusStage]])
  22. [https://tributes.theage.com.au/obituaries/30466/frank-bren/ ''Frank Bren''] {{Webarchive. link. (29 November 2021 , [[The Age]])
  23. (March 2022)
  24. [http://filmalert101.blogspot.com/2018/05/in-memoriam-frank-bren-pictures-from.html ''In Memoriam Frank Bren - Pictures from the tribute to his life held at La Mama ''] {{Webarchive. link. (7 November 2019 , Film Alert 101)
  25. [http://filmalert101.blogspot.com/2018/04/vale-frank-bren-actor-writer-director.html ''Vale Frank Bren - Actor, writer, director, scholar, critic - Friends John Snadden and Mark Savage remember''] {{Webarchive. link. (20 October 2019 , Film Alert 101)

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1943-births2018-deathsaustralian-male-film-actorsaustralian-male-soap-opera-actorsaustralian-male-dramatists-and-playwrights20th-century-australian-dramatists-and-playwrights21st-century-australian-dramatists-and-playwrightscinema-of-hong-kong